News Archives for April 2007

Accelenation - Following Sony’s decision to replace the PS2 emulator chip on European PS3 units with software emulation, a leaked memo to Phil Harrington (President, Sony Worldwide Studios) has revealed plans to emulate competing console units. It has been speculated for years that an emulator may emerge to allow Xbox-only games to run on a PC, but few suspected that cross-console emulation would be possible. Codenamed “Project 401” Mr Harrington would not be drawn on the subject, but added “the immense power of the PlayStation 3 makes 'console virtualization' more than possible.

MetkuMods - Dremel's, Ferm's, Proxxon's rotary tools have one thing in common; you need both hands to operate then. Yes, there are some special models that make them almost usable with only one hand but they do not come even close of the usability that this little mod of ours offers. When you have full revolutions running on the tool and you would like to set them lower, you will need to let go of the object you are working on to get the speed setting right. Same goes to turning the tool on and off. When you have a pedal on the floor, that can be used both to turn the tool on and off and also allow one to make stepless speed adjustments, you get a lot more done with better end results. I for one have ruined several pieces that I've tried to carve because I didn't have proper control over the tool. Now it won't happen again.

Techlounge - Today we’ll be looking at the Silverstone TJ09 Full-Tower Case. It sports a handful of innovations such as a separate hard drive section and unique video card cooling.The accolades for the TJ09 are already piling up, and Maximum PC is calling this their 2006 Dream Machine case. For the price, it might just be dream-worthy, too.There's not much doubt that the TJ09 will live up to Silverstone's reputation for quality, but does it actually merit the acclaim? Is it a steal for a mere three hundred United States dollars?

FutureLooks - For 2007, Samsung has trickled that LCD Television design elegance into their new Widescreen LCD Monitors. They've also coupled it with a crazy 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (2000:1 for those under 20 inch) and an ultra quick 2 ms response time. Other cool features include HDCP support for HD sources and they are even getting the nod from Microsoft with a spiffy Windows Vista Premium designation. This series of monitors come in a 22 inch, 20 inch, and 19 inch size. Today we check out their 20 inch Widescreen model known as the 206BW.

Virtual-Hideout - The thought of adding a media card reader into a USB flash drive is just another way to simplify our cluttered lives. With Kingston and Microsoft working together, the DataTraveler ReadyFlash was created using the next generation of memory technology. The Windows ReadyBoost feature provides users with....

3dGameMan - Crucial had no real huge surprises up their sleeves here; just another example of a great product from a great company. These memory modules were submitted to both Sandra and Everest burn-in and stability tests for 24hours straight and have not even had a hiccup! The modules during this testing barely became warm to the touch…

Overclockers Online - Like many people around the world, it wasn't too long ago when I celebrated Chinese New Year. This year marked the year of the pig and the celebrations were bigger than ever. Many companies capitalize on these events by either launching new products and PowerColor has done exactly that.

ThinkComputers - ViewSonic is a name that when we hear it we think of monitors. One of my first monitors was a ViewSonic. Today we will be taking a look at ViewSonic's VX2235wm 22-inch HD Widescreen LCD Monitor. Any display you get these days should be widescreen, the VX2235wm is not only widescreen it offers a 5ms response time, 700:1 contrast ratio, and integrated speakers. All of these features are great for gaming, movies, and just basic computers use. So let's take a look.

LegitReviews - Speaking of overclocking, this board was absolutely stellar, beating our old record with the particular Intel CPU that we have used. Price, well, that is a concern for any 680i SLI board. As you read in our eVGA 680i LT review, the 680i boards sit at the top of the price list, but the decision that has to be made is it is worth it to purchase a full 680i board over it younger brothers, the 680i LT or the 650i? My answer is no. The extra cost just dos not warrant the small increase in performance (if any) that you get.

Hardwarezone - NVIDIA is now shipping its GeForce 8800 GTS with 320MB of graphics memory, enough for most users running relatively modest resolutions and best of all, it is available at a lower price point. Here is Leadtek's take on this new variant of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS.

OverclockersClub - This week for OCC Poll #6, we're talking RAM. More specifically, how much RAM do you have installed in your PC? This is a pretty hot topic in the tech community, with Vista & games using more & more... so it should be interesting to see how this poll pans out. Like all Official OCC Polls, this one will be over this coming Sunday (April 8th)

Techgage - We took a look at a PC2-7200 kit from OCZ last year and it proved to be one of the best kits we've ever laid our mitts on. Today we are taking a look at another PC2-7200 kit, approved and branded by NVIDIA. Are we going to be impressed once again?

Motherboards.org - As a less expensive alternative to the nForce 680i SLI boards, the P5N32-E SLI Plus board is a good choice for the gamer wanting SLI on their motherboard without a large price tag.Performance-wise the board performs near on-par with the nForce 680i SLI board from EVGA. Feature-wise, the board has nearly every feature that the nForce 680i board would have on it.

Bjorn3d - With each new generation of high-end video cards the demand for power just keeps growing. Not only does the separate video cards need more power, using two in SLI or Crossfire mode increases the power demand even more. It is of course possible to just buy a new more powerful PSU every time you upgrade but that is not always practical, especially if you have a PSU that you are happy with and do not want to have to replace.With the release of the GeForce 8 cards from NVIDIA and R600 from AMD we also have another problem. While two PCI-Express power cables were enough to power two previous generation video cards in SLI or Crossfire, we now need 4(!) cables if we happen to be able to afford a second GeForce 8800GTX or R600.Thermaltake has the perfect product for anyone who wants to add some more power without having to change the whole PSU: the Purepower Power Express 250W.

TechReport - IF YOU'RE SHOPPING FOR AN enthusiast-oriented LGA775 motherboard, your choice of chipsets is dominated by offerings from Intel and Nvidia. There is a third option, though, and it comes from the unlikeliest of sources. You see, before it was acquired by AMD, ATI was working on a CrossFire Express 3200 chipset for Intel processors. That chipset survived the acquisition, and under new branding as the AMD RD600, it's made an appearance on DFI's LANParty UT ICFX3200-T2R/G motherboard.

OverclockerCafe - As you could see from our graph, the results were to say the least significant! So significant in fact that I spent another half a day overclocking memory to be sure I wasn't missing something. (Nothing new found unfortunately.) The CoolIT System's RAM Fan did cool the memory quite a bit but let's not forget that it creates an air current across the mainboard and other warm components nearby providing for better air circulation.

MaxitMag - Overclocking is phenomenal and with support for 1333MHZ FSB and DDR2-1200 speeds as standard, the Striker is most future proof motherboard out there. Overclocking is now within the reach of the masses thanks to Asus's clever Extreme Tweaker features. For their pros there is every advanced feature you could think of to tweak it till it burns. Don't be suprised if you reach 1900+ FSB and 1200MHZ DDR2 speeds with some decent aftermarket kit. While our benchmarks showed that with one graphics card there isn't a huge degree of improvement at stocks speeds over the older Intel chipsets, strap in another card for SLI and you'll start to see things really fly. Imagine Crysis running on the Striker with a pair of Asus EN8800GTX graphics cards. Oh Mama! The product bundle is fat with plenty of cables, great instruction manuals, loads of decent software including 3DMark 06 Advanced Edition, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and a copy of Ghost Recon.

TechARP - Recently, we wrote about how the ATI Radeon X1950 GT graphics card had managed to obtain Vista certification without a working driver. Well, the first working driver for the Radeon X1950 GT finally appeared on March 28, 2007. Time to pop the champagne, eh?

Techniz - Fremont, Calif., USA, March 28, 2007—Patriot Memory, a global provider of premium memory module and flash memory solutions, today announced their sponsorship of the PMS Clan, the world’s first and largest multiplatform all-female gaming clan. The sponsorship demonstrates the company’s commitment to the gaming community.

PCPerspective - While we were not able to obtain a review sample of Miller’s flagship 10.5kW unit, we do have an exclusive review of the Miller XMT 300 PC, which can deliver up to 4,500 watts of pure DC power. Talk about having some extra reserve capacity… wow!

X-bitLabs - Intel Corp., the biggest maker of x86 microprocessors in the world, on Wednesday unveiled previously unknown details about its forthcoming microprocessors which are expected to be produced in 2008. The new chips code-named Nehalem will not only have new micro-architecture, but will also use new platform architecture and feature built-in memory controllers as well as graphics cores. The first mentions about Nehalem processors and micro-architecture were made in 2002 and at that time it was believed that the chip would succeed the NetBurst micro-architecture sometime in 2006 – 2007 timeframe. However, at some point the company decided to spend more time with the drawing board and development of the next-generation micro-architecture took quite a long time, which made the world’s largest chipmaker to come up with the Core 2 chips, which were still much faster compared to those based on the NetBurst micro-architecture. But next year Intel’s Nehalem is set to shine, as currently it seems that Nehalem is more than just a new micro-architecture, it is a fully-new concept for both microprocessors and platforms.

[H]ardocp - Dell has talked about competing head-to-head in the boutique gaming PC market for a while now. The company's first factory over-clocked and water-cooled gaming PC is the strongest sign yet that Dell is playing for keeps.At around $5,500, it doesn't need to be said that this is a very expensive computer, but where does it sit with its prospective competition? We configured the same PC at several other integrators and found that Dell’s price is high compared to Velocity Micro and Overdrive PC, but much lower than what you’d pay at other boutique builders.

BonaFideReviews - With so many LCD panels in the market today it can be very easy to find it overwhelming to find just the "right" one for you and your needs. Years ago there were only a select few manufacturers that one would even have to consider when looking for a LCD monitor but today there are more new names popping up than ever before. For some, price is the only thing that matters and understandably so. For others, they prefer to pay the extra bucks for a monitor made by a familiar name. Today we are looking at a monitor that might have the best of both worlds.

Techgage - Microsoft recently announced an update to their Wireless Optical Desktop 4000 with the primary difference being updates for Vista and also the inclusion of a Laser mouse. We are taking a fresh look at this updated product to see if it's worth your $80.

TechwareLabs - Do you need to test your accessories but your worried what that water cooling system or TEC cooler may do once inside your case? Test it outside your case in 5 simple steps using our guide an a spare power supply and save yourself and your system needless problems by checking out that accessory first.

NetworkWorld - New software from AirDefense is designed to protect a widely used but flawed wireless LAN encryption protocol. The software “cloaks” the encryption key used to scramble WLAN data packets by means of the Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol. WEP was defined in the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard, and is part of every 802.11-based device.

Neoseeker - The G.Skill PC6400 modules ended up running at up to 975MHz at 4-4-4-12 timing - that is 175MHz above the rated 800MHz speed; a 21.9% increase in raw memory clock rate. We have seen higher memory speeds, but it is still fairly impressive to see a PC6400 module reach PC7800 speeds. In order to reach 975-4-4-4-12 stably, I had to increase the memory voltage to 2.35V. The modules were quite warm, but they were not too hot to touch, however even increasing the memory voltage to 2.4V did not get them stable at 1000MHz. I was using a 1.45Vcore, 1.65 Northbridge, 1.45 FSB voltage setting.

TechSpot - The critical flaw that was discovered last week regarding animated cursors at first went with nothing more than a comment in passing from Microsoft. They've changed their tune dramatically now and are quickly moving to provide an emergency patch. This is rare for Microsoft, though not unheard of, whom have been known to delay even critical fixes until enough time has passed for more testing and patch week rolls around. Responding to reports of widespread abuse, Microsoft is planning the emergency patch for tomorrow.

eWeek - EMI said it was making its digital music catalog available without the anti-piracy measure known as digital rights management (DRM), with Apple Inc.'s iTunes as its first retail outlet. Apple said iTunes would make individual tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29, 1.29 euros and 99 pence.

TweakNews - There's little bad I can say about the XPro 600. For a media center PC, it would be an ideal choice, both in its power and size, and in its relative silence. Plenty of connectors for legacy devices is a nice touch, and one that I would like to see other PSU makers implement. Stable voltages make for a great performer, and the glossy housing will look good in any windowed case.

techPowerUp - The Saitek GK200 may look like a normal keyboard, but it is geared toward gamers, who are on a budget and would like a normal sized input device. The gaming keys are a great feature while the Audio and USB 2.0 connector round up for a well balanced gaming keyboard - all for the price of a normal one.

techPowerUp - The Nuke-Z mouse pads come packaged in a black plastic tube, making it look like it houses some radioactive material. The Z8 has the same logo printed on it. It it thick and features a smooth surface. The 270g weight and 3.9 mm thickness may not be liked by some and loved by others. We take our mice for a spin on the Z8 and let you know if it makes us glow green with joy.

Madshrimps - OC-Team.be aims to group the efforts of the Belgium overclocking community under one label, delivering world breaking records using what ever hardware they can lay their hands on.OC-Team.be aims to group the efforts of the Belgium overclocking community under one label, delivering world breaking records using what ever hardware they can lay their hands on. While the Belgian community is small, it’s known for a tight cooperation between the members, a small country allows them to meet often to perform sub zero projects with either Liquid Nitrogen, Dry Ice, home made phase change cooling and more.

MetkuMods - This log provides a full account of modding a Logitech 5.1 Multimedia Speaker System into a wooden cabinets.Logitech kindly supplied me with z-5500 5.1 system as a basis for this project. I think they look ok as stock, but I'm trying to transform them to look more expensive and not so "computer related". I think speakers should be made out of wood, and they should display the material used and not cover it with thick layer of paint.

TGDaily - Logitech recently has received FCC approval for a new wireless keyboard/mouse combination called “Cordless Desktop Wave”.The new device will be Logitech’s first keyboard tailored for use with Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system. Compared to the currently available “Cordless Desktop Comfort laser” keyboard, there are now a few dedicated buttons that directly correspond to Vista features.

DailyTech - While most manufacturers are using the 1.8" or 2.5" mobile hard disk drive (HDD) form-factor for solid-state drives (SSDs), Transcend is going a different route with its latest offering. The company has displayed a USB 2.0-based ExpressCard SSD that is available in capacities up to 16GB.

ExtremeTech - The ink on Windows Vista's EULA is barely dry, so it's very likely that more speed tips, registry hacks, and deep settings will be revealed in the weeks, months, and years to come. For now, here's our set of tweaks that can help you turn up the throttle on your new operating system.

c|net - Few computing technologies from the late 1970s endure today, with one notable exception: the fundamental marching orders for the vast majority of the world's computers.The x86 instruction set architecture (ISA), used today in more than 90 percent of the world's PCs and servers, hit the marketplace in 1978 as part of Intel's 8086 chip.

Madshrimps - In this article we use Liquid Nitrogen to control the CPU temperature to gain impressive increases in performances from the highest rated Intel Core 2 CPU the X6800. Going well below zero the Mhz go flying sky high...

DailyTech - The move between Lite-On and Philips is one that industry analysts have been expecting to happen for about a year now. Last April, Lite-On took over BenQ's optical disc drive manufacturing operations. At the time, Lite-On and BenQ were partners in the optical drives business but the takeover placed Lite-On up to the number two spot in the list of biggest drive manufacturers in the world.

ExtremeTech - On Monday, Gigabyte released a new family of motherboards—the GA-MA69 series—all of which are based on Advanced Micro Devices' 690 chipset.Prices were not announced.All but one of the boards will include HDMI connectivity with HDCP support, according to the company, and will be optimized for handling high-end 3D graphics and the Aero user interface of Microsoft's Windows Vista Premium and Vista Business operating systems.

PCMagazine - Today HP announced the availability of new desktop PCs that run Microsoft Windows Vista. These desktops have a matching look and feel, similar to that of the recent PC Magazine Editors' Choice, the HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC. The new look extends to the included and optional peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and monitors. Several new flat-panel monitors were announced along with the desktops.

Inquirer - ROADMAPS SEEN by the INQ show that Intel will continue to pile on the pressure on AMD by introducing large cuts on a number of its desktop processors on the 22nd of April. The E6700 will drop in price from $530 to $316, the E6600 will fall from $316 to $224, Intel will introduce a 2.13GHz 4MB cache E6420 at $183, and that will spell the end of the 2MB E6400 part, which falls in price from $224 to $183. Intel will also introduce a 1.86GHz, 1066MHz 4 E6320 at $163.

Inquirer - GENERAL-PURPOSE COMPUTATION ON GPUS (GPGPU) will be the buzzword of 2008 and pretty much everybody in the industry knows it. The reason Intel is entering the discrete graphic market with Larrabee is not to show people pretty pictures, but rather to be able to offer a professional series of cards, especially one for the upcoming GPGPU market - which is set to change the landscape of many industries. When you take a look into Graphzilla's bottom financial line, you will get the importance of Quadro series for Nvidia.

TechWareLabs - Dragon Lasers which is located in China sells high powered green laser pointersand competes with several other well known laser pointer manufacturers world wide. if you are unfamiliar with the difference between green and red laser pointers please check out our guide here. Green lasers are not only many times brighter and more complex than their lesser red siblings, they are also much more expensive as a result. The benefit to green lasers is not only the unique quality of the color but also the fact that pretty much any green laser from 5mW and up has a beam that is quite visible at night. The higher the power (mW) rating the more visible and powerful the beam gets. Green lasers can also be seen for several miles. They make excellent pointers, level beams, and constellation markers.

Techgage - While many companies have 8GB thumb drives on the market, many are slow... very slow. Corsair doesn't think that should be the case though, which is why they introduced their Voyager GT series. The GT has similar goals as the original Voyager, except it's sole focus is performance. As we will see in our tests, this is made quite clear.

Viperlair - With support for enough devices for a good HTPC, and the convertibility to be a good Mid-tower as well make this one case to not overlook. The CM Media 280 has sharp looks and the option for the built in VFD display with media control buttons and IR Receiver solidify its place in the HTPC case sector. Cooling performance was adequate with potential to be great. The case was nice and quiet when tied with other silent components.